Fast-track Firms --Thriving, Not Just Surviving

Treis feels the catalog production marketplace has been one of process flow. Customers want reductions in turnaround times and pricing. "To the consumer, this has driven the whole software explosion, certainly in our plant," he says."It's driving the other technologies.

"A few years ago, we moved from analog technology into digital prepress. We're going to be fully stochastic (screening) within a couple of months. There's been a lot of conversation about proofing over the Internet, greater capacity in archiving and managing images. We need to remain on the cutting edge to be a capable supplier of what we believe will be a continually growing, dynamic catalog marketplace."

In order to keep competitive, Arandell purchased a large tract of land that will enable it to triple capacity in Wisconsin. The facility is currently under construction.

Courier Corp.

North Chelmsford, MA

Most Recent FY Sales: $211.9M

Previous FY Sales: $192.2M

Number of Employees: 1,508

Number of Plants: 6

Launched in 1824, Courier Corp. is one of the oldest printing companies in the Unites States. Courier concentrates exclusively on book manufacturing and specialty publishing. It focuses on three major book markets: educational, religious and specialized trade. Courier delved into specialty publishing with the acquisition of Dover Publications, of Mineola, NY, in September of 2000. Dover was a 50-year-old company owned by a husband-and-wife team.

In choosing its markets, Courier Corp. has managed to stay ahead of the curve, according to James Conway III, chairman, president and CEO. "The markets we've chosen to compete in over the last five years have had compound annual growth rates in excess of other markets," he notes. "We picked markets that grew more rapidly than general publishing.

"At the same time, we've designed our service offerings in each plant to service those markets and to be highly responsive. By doing that, not only have we picked markets that are growing faster than most, we're gaining share as our compound annual growth rate is about twice that of the market. On top of that, Dover has experienced a nice double-digit growth—11 to 12 percent. Those numbers are solid, given the economy."